About the nicest thing one can say about Noel Neill is that,
when the producers of The Adventures of Superman decided to shift from
black-and-white to color and from grim shoot-em-ups to more innocuous
shenanigans for children, she represented precisely the sort of Lois Lane that
they would have wished for. Friendly, unassuming, utterly asexual, she would be
accepted by little boys—already aware of the requirements of genre—as the
necessary woman to be imperiled and then rescued by the hero, but never a
threat to divert the action into any of that unwanted mushy stuff. Indeed, even
though the episode "The Wedding of Superman" shows her dreaming of marital
bliss with the Man of Steel, she is the only celluloid Lois Lane who usually does
not seem to love Superman, and does not seem to be loved by Superman; rather,
her relationship to George REEVES's Clark Kent and Superman is more that of
dutiful child to indulgent parent. Similarly subservient to John HAMILTON's
Perry White and Robert Shayne's Inspector Henderson, she eventually is even
dominated by Jack LARSON's enthusiastically childlike Jimmy Olsen. Which
suggests another reason to mildly praise Noel Neill: because she, unlike
predecessor Phyllis COATES, made no effort to attract attention or seize the
spotlight, she better allowed the talents of Reeves and Larson to come to the
forefront.

Prior to her adventures with Superman, Neill spent a decade
specializing in minor parts in forgettable musicals and inane comedies, often
appearing uncredited. Such a role as a jungle girl in the serial Brick
Bradford first brought her into contact with the team who would later
launch the Superman film franchise, Spencer Gordon BENNET and Thomas
CARR, and may have helped her get the part of Lois Lane in the two Superman serials
they directed. Taking their subsequent Superman film and televisionseries
more seriously, they sought out, and obtained, an infinitely superior cast,
including Coates as Lois Lane, but when she quit the series after one season,
Neill represented a convenient, and fitting, replacement.

When The Adventures of Superman came to a halt, Neill
retired at the age of forty, seemingly realizing, like Larson, that she would
be permanently identified as her Superman character and hence unable to
continue her career. And she either married well or managed her money wisely,
because she has survived into her eighties limiting her activities to live and
filmed appearances related to her role as Lois Lane, including a cameo
appearance as Lois Lane's mother in Richard DONNER's Superman and an
appearance with Larson on an episode of Superboy. Most recently, she was
seen in Superman Returns, perfectly cast as the weak old woman who is
easily manipulated by the sinister Lex Luthor, and again revealing that this
sweet, agreeable actress had always been miscast as veteran reporter Lois Lane.